Possibilities of deep-submicrometer CMOS for very-high-speed computer logic

It is shown that room-temperature CMOS, which has rarely been considered suitable for very-high-speed computer logic, can have sufficient performance to be the post-ECL (emitter-coupled logic) high-speed device when deep-submicrometer technology is available. The possibilities of CMOS are evaluated in the context of the very many factors related to computer logic. In a case study, it is shown that system performance comparable to that of the most modern large-scale computers is obtainable with room-temperature operation, assuming CMOS devices with gate length of 0.2-0.25 mu m. Further possibilities for performance improvement and the advantage of CMOS compared with other technologies are discussed.<
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